Chennai: At a time when the coronavirus cases were on the rise in the country, including Tamil Nadu, 10 of the 127 Malaysian Nationals, who attempted to leave for Kuala Lumpur, were detained at the airport on Sunday for concealing their participation in the Nizamuddin Markaz meet in Delhi.
Airport sources said the 127 passengers, who were stranded in Tamil Nadu due to the coronavirus lockdown, were about to board a special Baltik Airlines flight scheduled to leave at 1040 hrs, when it was found during customs and immigration checks, that ten of them had participated in the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi last month.
The ten passengers, who had come from Malaysia on tourist visa, had attended the Delhi meet and later flew to Thiruvananthapuram from where they reached Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu by road.
They concealed their participation in the Delhi meet and came to Chennai with the help of Malaysian Consulate and attempted to fly back home without subjecting themselves to medical tests or self isolation in view of the corona pandemic.
As the immigration authorities found their participation in the Delhi meet, they cancelled their journey and the flight took off with the remaining 117 passengers for Kuala Lumpur.
The ten Nizamuddin Markaz attendees were handed over to the Central Crime Branch Police and the Health and Family Welfare department was also alerted.
Tension prevailed for a while at the International airport following the incident. (UNI)